Interview with Sonya Cassidy for Humans

18 October 2016

 

Is Hester a complicated character?

Very much so. She is an industrial model synth. When she awakens, she’s in the middle of a day at the chemical plant like any other, and is immediately aware of that very human fight-or-flight response. Things hit the ground running for her – she’s in a threatening, dangerous environment. The other synths were created in a loving family environment as Leo’s brothers and sisters, whereas Hester’s story couldn’t be more opposite to that. Her memory can’t delete anything she’s experienced up to this point, and her story has been a damaged one. Every human she’s encountered has treated her badly. When she awakens, that colours her worldview. She’s taken in by Leo [Colin Morgan] and Max [Ivanno Jeremiah], and being very brave by trusting and learning from them.

How does that work out for everyone?

She starts by thinking there’s something terribly wrong with her. She just wants to be rebooted and sent back to the plant to be fixed, but they explain that she’s become conscious. This completely blows her mind. When she first meets Leo and Max, she’s very alone and vulnerable, like a child, but she sees that a conscious synth like Max can operate in the world. She and Leo have much more of a connection than her and Max, which throws up another interesting idea, that a synth can have more of a connection with a human than with another synth.

 

How was Synth School?

I loved it. It was great fun and incredibly useful, for the auditions, I re-watched the first series and tried to do my best synth impression, but I only became aware of how detailed and sophisticated the work was at Synth School. You don’t have the same physical language as humans, which for an actor was a really nice challenge. I’ve been hiking around London as a synth, practising getting on and off the tube.

Did you get any funny looks?

People clock that you’re not giving anything away. You don’t get irritated when people cut you up, for example – the commute would be much easier if we were all synths… Even pausing for a moment in London feels odd, taking time and not rushing. While we were shooting in Liverpool Street station, we had this massive synth charging point, and the number of people who came over and tried to charge their phones while Ivanno and I were sitting getting charged up was extraordinary – and very telling.

How do you feel about Hester?

I really like her! She’s a product of circumstance. Although by the end of the show there are things she’s done that are inexcusable, like any human from a damaged environment, you can’t blame her for the skewed way in which she operates. She’s trying to learn, to create a sense of her own identity and her place in the world, in a very short space of time – humans spend the first 20, 25 years of our lives trying to do that, maybe longer. I liked her pragmatism, and she learns very quickly to figure stuff out on her own. I hope she poses interesting challenges for the audience – she’s not just a robot that goes rogue.

How strange was it to play someone who doesn’t show any emotion?

It was hard to begin with. Hester experiences a lot of negative emotion, so not being able to express that was very draining for me. I had to shake it off at the end of every day. Even the physical act of engaging your core – you have to be strong to play a synth. We did a scene where I’m chasing a security guard in DMs and jeans. I’m still pretty quick – sprint was always my thing at school – but having to do take after take of standing still then becoming Usain Bolt… My legs were in a shocking amount of pain the next day. And you can’t be tired. Actors use breath a huge amount, but you can’t be out of puff in close-ups as a synth.

Would you want to own a synth?

I’ve thought about this a lot. I think perhaps not. If I were getting a coffee every morning that would be fine, but not in my own home. Most of the time, the products we use now work incredibly well, but they’ve had to recall phones that have been bursting into flames. And that’s just a phone – far more could go wrong with a synth. The implications would be huge.

How did starring in the show affect your opinions about AI?

Very much – I feel much better informed through the research I’ve done around it. It’s my increasing belief that the discussion about AI should be at the heart of political and social conversation. These incredible leaps forward should be discussed and better understood.